Brave is Pixar’s 13th movie. It’s about a flame-haired princess named Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) who doesn’t want to get married. She’d rather ride her horse, drink from waterfalls and wield her bow and arrow, like a medieval Katniss. The animation giant has featured female characters in its movies, including adorable Boo in Monsters, Inc., daffy Dory in Finding Nemo, feisty chef Colette in Ratatouille, the clever robot Eve in WALL•E and ant princess Atta in A Bug’s Life. But Pixar has never made a girl the lead until now, just as it’s never had a woman direct one of its films until now.

Oh, wait. Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt)was the director of Brave, until she was replaced in the last 18 months of production by Mark Andrews, and the halfway-there aspect of that triumph serves as an apt metaphor for Pixar’s halfway embrace of female empowerment within the text of Brave. Merida is strong, capable and courageous. But depressingly, she’s a princess, the most traditional role for female characters in children’s fictions. She’s a rebellious tomboy, but her concerns are still limited to those of a princess, the biggest of which remains, as ever, marriage.

Pixar is full of brilliant, flexible minds, the kind that made credible heroes out of a stuffed Wild West sheriff, an assortment of worker-bee types, including an ant and a robot, and a rat that dreamed of creating haute cuisine. It has been 17 years since the studio released its first movie, Toy Story, an awfully long time to get around to a female lead. I’m glad it finally got there, but I would have preferred that the studio’s groundbreaking moment had involved something actually groundbreaking.

She’s talking about the nature of the character, but it is also true that the movie itself, while nowhere near the low point of last summer’s Cars 2, doesn’t dazzle. The animation is beautiful, but the story is staid. It is set in medieval Scotland, where Merida has just come of age and her mother Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson) is preparing to marry her off to any of three candidates from the other clans. This is tradition, intended to keep the peace among clans with a history of warfare, and therefore it’s Merida’s duty.

Although Queen Elinor has a Susan Sontag–style white streak in her hair, she’s Miss Manners in a crown. A princess doesn’t raise her voice. She is “cautious,” “clean” and “above all, strives for perfection.” Elinor hardly considers marriage the end of the world; she actually loves her buffoonish husband Fergus (Billy Connolly). But for Merida, it feels like the end of freedom. Stewing with resentment, she consults a witch to change her mother’s mind but doesn’t stop to read the fine print.

The best parts of Brave are the scenes involving the changed Queen Elinor, now a gigantic bear. But despite a lot of superficial talk of fate — “Our fate lies within us. You only have to be brave enough to see it” — her physical metamorphosis represents the main transformation. Other than deciding her mother isn’t so bad, Merida doesn’t really grow. She’s simply extended her time as a tomboy, another archetype, less a girl than a stereotype of a kind of girl. “It wasn’t clear to me what her arc was,” Orenstein says. “What is it that we are imagining girls moving toward here? ‘I get to ride around on a horse all day’ isn’t really enough. That isn’t going to take her anywhere. There wasn’t a desire to do something.”

This wouldn’t feel so vaguely unsatisfying if Brave were just one of many Pixar movies that featured a strong female lead. It’s the absence of others that turns the spotlight on Brave. And having a princess protagonist isn’t inherently bad. It’s just that she is so chapter one of what girls can be — and so many other Pixar movies skipped most known chapters and moved on to whole new volumes.

I did wonder if Pixar went with the princess concept in Brave with an eye toward subverting the tired (ahem, Disney) genre by attacking it head on, making this princess so defiantly different that all the other princesses would pale in comparison. If so, the studio hasn’t carried it off. Merida has red hair. She can shoot like Hawkeye in The Avengers. But Mulan accomplished more. Susan in Monsters vs. Aliens grew more (literally and figuratively), even if, as Orenstein points out, she could have used “a few more pixels in her waist.” Tiana in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, the first black female lead for the studio,had a job and an ambition. I’d rather have seen Pixar make Remy’s daughter its first female lead in a Ratatouille sequel (Ratatouille 2: The Leftovers).

Girls of all ages need to see female characters in leading roles — whether they can shoot a bow and arrow like The Hunger Games’ Katniss or unabashedly embrace their gloriously imperfect bodies like Lena Dunham in Girls. Cultural equality is essential to broader equality. The images we see don’t have to be idealized and role models. They don’t need crowns. Average sorts of girls being represented in and incorporated into stories as leading characters can and will empower future feminists. And it’s just as crucial for those who might never call themselves by that name to see themselves on screens large and small because they still need to get jobs and find their way in the world.

Moreover, it’s not only girls who need these images. When I told my 8-year-old son we were going to see Brave, you’d think I’d have told him school was not out for the summer after all and that I was making him a spinach sandwich. He was vague about why he didn’t want to see it, and when I asked directly, he claimed it had nothing to do with the lead character’s being a girl. It might have been harder to get him into a seat, and the bear scared him, but in the end, he said he liked it very much. (Of course, his favorite characters were Merida’s little brothers, a trio of naughty, carrot-topped imps.) Will having seen Brave make him one day be more respectful of his college girlfriend? Who knows? I could use all the help I can get in nurturing a good future man.

I have no doubt there are a lot of good men at Pixar, but if they’d grown up in an environment in which it was totally normal for them to see movies with girls in the lead, maybe it wouldn’t have taken 17 years for the studio to get around to making a girl the star. And I’m with Orenstein in hoping that Brave does well enough to encourage the studio to make more movies with girls in the lead. (Pixar’s Pete Docter, director of Up, is reportedly working on a film that takes place inside a girl’s mind.) “The fact that we have to put this much analysis into this movie is really a symptom of the problem,” Orenstein says. “I just want to see such a broad range of female characters onscreen that we don’t have to have a discussion every time one comes out.” Exactly. Believe it or not, I’d love to shut up about the topic.

No Disney princess is a "role model". They are just the fables of our time.

Stop taking your son to see movies he doesn't want to see because you think it will empower him to be nicer to women. That's not how it works. You would go along way in helping him understand the power of women by not writing articles that basically sum the answer "They didn't try enough to make this girl more than just a princess." Listen to yourself. It's a movie.

This article is terrible. Time, you should be ashamed to be wasting your time with these types of reports. Shame on you for supporting the dissection of a children's story to make it about this ONE writer, and her opinions on animated women not being convincing role models.

That being said, I enjoyed the movie for what it was...just pure entertainment. And at least he main character was a bit feisty...the movie is good for both boys and girls - and adults...no easy feat! So, kudos for that!

Yes, and why oh why do these female characters lately need to have all this mass of swirly curly jubilant HAIR all the time, and perfect round faces and tiny noses and gigantic eyes? What is the message there, Hmmmm? That unless you look like a beautiful little doll, you're not even important enough to mention! No wonder girls have self esteem issues! And if there is a queen who is GOOD? They make her look relatively YOUNG...and the bad ones always look old (and often have a big nose or a big chin and a skinny face)!

The point of the movie is that Merida doesn't need to develop or change because there is nothing wrong with her. The societal expectations are what need to change around her. She is a metaphor and a pretty overt one at that. One would assume a writer would understand that.

And as far as the idea that Merida accomplished nothing, she is 12! She's not supposed to want anything other than to have fun. she just knows she doesn't want to get married (the societal expectation).

And she does accomplish something fairly important she convinces the clans that they do not need to continue along the same social trajectory as before. Even the clan princes follow in her lead saying they do not want to marry so young either.

I don't thing it was a failure ...but..well ....you can't have Female Empowerment if she wouldn't make a ''woman stubbornness mistake'' first to fix it then.. with a good movie story see almost got her mother killed and her brothers

Are you kidding me? You're looking WAY to far in to this and missing the finer points of the movie in the process.

Her being a princess wasn't to throw her in to the stereotype. It was to do the complete opposite. To give her an obstacle for her to break out of the stereotype. Her mother was the prim and proper one (and by the end of the movie, even she'd loosened up a bit). But Merida was against all (or at least most) of the expectations of women. Which would have been her fate if she didn't fight against it. All of the "superficial" talk of fate and destiny that you refer to isn't just there to give the movie some phoney philosophical meaning. It's there to highlight what's at stake. She could accept her fate, or in other words, the expectations surrounding her gender, or she could combat it. And she did. Which is supposed to encourage the youth to do the same. And while I'm not one of them, I can't imagine the message being lost on them as it seems to have been with you.

The reason you don't see much character development in Merida is that she already knows what is right (apart from the whole putting a spell on her mother thing..but that's attributed to her rebellious teenage attitude, which was displayed during the entire movie). She knew that an arranged marriage wasn't fair, despite what the four kingdoms and her own mother said (though I do agree that Mulan II did it better- however it's not a fair comparison considering the message behind her movie was "follow your heart and be with the person you love", while in this movie, Merida has no significant other. She just doesn't want to lose that option. Which is why she sees it as the end of her freedom). But she overcame all of the adversity and made peace without having to conform with their old, outdated traditions. What more could you want from her? I mean really. The only thing left to be desired would be her communication with her mother. And I think that the time that they spent together while the queen was under that spell provided sufficient development on that front.

While this is all your own opinion, and you have every right to it, I think you've gravely misjudged this movie. Personally, I find this to be a very strong and inspiring start to Pixar's lead females. It sends an important message to, not just girls, but kids in general growing up (although it's especially important for girls, considering how our society treats them), that you don't have to follow the path set for you. Even if you're a princess. You can forge your own path. You can change your fate. You just need to be brave.

I haven't seen Brave yet, so I have no idea whether it's a good or a bad movie. All I know is that, whatever drawbacks it might have, it is still worth noting that it is a fairytale with a female protagonist, who doesn't just sit and wait to be rescued, and that, in itself it's a great thing. You don't see this kind of things everyday. In, fact, you almost never see it.

I couldn't disagree more. She's seeing WAY too much into this. These are children's movies and need to be developmentally appropriate. A 6 year old girl is not going to understand the concept of Merida taking over government in her kingdom at the end of the film. I believe the most important message in the film is that you have the freedom to make your own choices, but you must accept the consequences that arise from those choices. That's a lesson that EVERYONE needs to learn, not just little girls. Sometimes a movie is just a movie. It was created for kids to see and enjoy, not for overly feministic adults to pick apart and read meaning into every extraneous detail. On another note- I am 24 and was raised on Disney films- the old ones where the princesses still needed saving. I have 2 college degrees and a career. I have ambition, I respect myself and other women. I don't expect to be saved or taken care of, but make it my business to be informed and to make my own decisions. I am a strong woman. To say that fact is because of or in spite of films I watched as a child, is to give the films too much credit. Parents who teach their children to be strong and independent help shape who their child will be- not the movies they watch.

In her few criticisms of the Brave's messages (amidst more general criticism of the industry and the fact it's taken 17 years to get to this point), to me author Mary Pols seems to overlook the most important message of the film - which is that tradition CAN be changed and adapted as time passes and circumstances and cultures shift. This, in its fairytale setting, is a remarkably radical concept: aren't fairytales all about upholding and reaffirming tradition? Essentially, Brave offers traditional, Disney-type characters in a story that feels and appears to be entirely traditional, until its radical - but entirely understated - resolution subverts the values of the entire game. Just as Merida has the power to change her own fate - and with it the traditions of her people - Brave challenges the industry's own male-centric "traditions," and suggests that even the traditional fairytale can be re-adapted for the 21st century.

On a simplistic level, the film's focal relationship, between Merida and her mother Elinor represents the relationship between traditionalism and radicalism. It should be noted that the close exploration of mother-daughter relationships is in itself terribly unexplored in films and a refreshing lens through which this neo-classic fairytale is viewed.

Merida's character IS (somewhat ironically) quite 2D, and doesn't break many boundaries here as far as being radical goes - but isn't supposed to be different. What IS radical is the fact that, this time around, the tension created by this typical, tradition-challenging character ISN'T resolved in the typical way (i.e. by bowing to and reasserting tradition by the end of the film), but in fact reaffirms the values of this oft-thwarted character type.

Much of Pixar's "ground-breaking" in Brave is understated, coming to light only when comparing the plot and the film's function in the industry at large. This rather low-key message is, by necessity, limited by the scope of the fairytale/plot tradition that they are attempting to change. This isn't to say that the studio is incapable of making a film which breaks ground in a much more brazen manner; they should do this, and I'm certain that they will. However for such a film, Brave would be an entirely wrong choice: it would cease to become a
fairytale if fairytale-specific limitations (historical setting, etc.) were unrealistically exceeded, and thus the point of making a neo-fairytale would be undone. As it stands, Brave injects a quietly-rebellious tremor of what ground-breaking changes it hopes can - and will - occur within the film-making tradition in coming years.

The film's story takes place over the course of a handful of days, and you want major character development and change? Let's have a discussion about setting realistic goals for girls (or anyone else, for that matter) here!

@SusanLowe
If you have no problem with how Brave presented men, you do not
actually believe that men and women have equal value, but that men are
inferior, and possibly villainous.

You can TELL everyone that modern feminism is about equality until you're blue in the face, but that does not make it so. @Truth_Gun's observation that this kind of "feminism" is equivalent to "chauvinism" is just pointing out the obvious.

@Truth_Gun Apparently, you have no idea what a feminist is. Fyi, it's a person who believes that women and men should have equal value, opportunity and power. If that frightens you, that's your problem.

I like the movie, and have a 5 year old daughter who likes to pretend to be Merida. We've watched it together a few times.

I'm okay with Merida not changing much throughout the film - she held her ground on the marriage issue, which ended up changing her mother, and the entire attitude of her community. Forced / arranged marriage of young girls was common in those times, and to have Merida involved in changing that attitude was a big win for women, IMO. For what it's worth, forced / arranged marriage of very young women is still commonplace in much of the developing world, where women's 'rights' are not much further along today than they were in the medieval Scotland of Merida.

And I do think that Merida changed in that she learned that her mother loved her and wanted the best for her, even when she was caught up in her antiquated parental attitudes. This is a powerful lesson, in that it teaches that we can go up against the powers that be and fight for what we believe is right, and still learn to love the person we're clashing with. Not your everyday hollywood sentiment.

Good article. The thing that strikes me most about your point is that Merida is "a tomboy, another archetype, less a girl than a stereotype of a kind of girl." I did feel more connected to Mulan, even if the message of her story was off, because Mulan had personal growth and displayed characteristics that I could relate to. Merida's personality traits were more superficial and archetypal. Brave was a good film but not a great one; this article really highlights why this is so. Thanks for your insight.

Someday I hope to make media that helps address this, I just worry that being a man myself that my efforts to help will just be looked at with distrust or disgust. I know women can do this for themselves and I don't fancy myself some kind of hero that needs to save the day or anything, but I can't not chase my dream to make things, to make media and to help make the world a better place. I want to help, time will tell.

You missed the whole point of Brave. The film's overall theme was Changing Your Fate, that's true enough and stated pretty much throughout the entire film, but methinks you missed the point of Merida's arc, which was To Accept Responsability (or Actions Have Consequences).

I agree with BetsyCharbonneau on this one. Marriage, for princesses, is a very political thing and it's good that Pixar acknowledges that.

When Merida outright rejects (and systematically humilliates) each clan's heir marriage proposal not only she's actign like a spoiled brat but she's Not Accepting Her Responsability/The Consequences Of Her Actions, which in this case is the kingdom risking political instability; which is why, after twisting the rules of the tournament, she does NOT get away with her actions by not marrying a prince because life it's not a fairytale and Merida has responsabilities, which is WHY her marriage is due to happen no matter what . . . Unless, of course, Merida acts as a spoiled brat again; which is what she does immediately by accepting the enchanted cake from the weird witch in the forest and turns her mother into a bear (the only political savvy one in the family that holds her kingdom together) and everything starts going downhill when Merida can not longer run from the consequences of her actions.

And one important factor in her actions was that her attitude (and her mother's and I'll get to that later, but mostly Merida's) was what caused the rift between them due to lack of communication and formed an important part of why she decided on being neglectful with her duties; and that rift is another consequence that must be repared, i.e. "mend the bond that was broken" or however they said it in the ilm. Only by trying to understand her mother, accepting her responsabilities and coming into her own as a Mature Human Being (not quite an adult, in my humble opinion) does she banquishes the spell on her mother's and disaster that awaited her kingdom.

Something that really annoys me is when people point out that Merida is not anti-romance and quite accepting of marriage at the end, as if that somehow was a weakness and anti-feminist. First of all, feminism is not about man-hating (what's wrong with romance? I'm not a particularly romantic woman and of course I'd love to see a non-romantic-oriented heroine but this is not bad at all.) Second of all, Merida recognises that she MUST go through marriage (for her kingdom and all that) because she's a political pawn, and that makes her all the more mature, but just like Mulan she decides to do it in the future on Her Own Terms, i.e. when she feels ready and in love (or as much in love as politics can allow).

Now, onto Elinor. *Of course* Elinor is cautious, clean and strives for perfection. She represents an ideal of womanly beauty. How's this bad? That doesn't mean she's weak. She's cautious because of her political savviness and she's clean and strives for perfection because that's the queenly mask she must wear for her kingdom, for she's the one that keeps it together (observe when only with her voice she IMPOSES order on the chaos of the Hall). But herein lies her weakness.

Elinor's arc is about Becoming Human. And it's even represented in a literal sense! From queen to bear and human back all over again. She's so engrossed in her mask (because of all the responsability she shoulders) that she fails to see her daughter as her own person and tries to make her into the perfect princess. But she's justified, in a sense, becasue a proper princess is needed for the kingdom to work out. And at the same time this dailure to see Merida as her own person is one of the factors that drive the wedge between them and starts the main conflict of the film (she's not exactly guiltless here).

She's not even comfortable with the queenly mask, like when she rants to her husband as if she were Merida, she clearly dislikes the loss of control (it also cues on the fact that she an Merida and more alike that they'd like to admit at this point in the film because of the juxtaposed rants.) When Elinor is transformed into a bear, she loses control; and she detests that. Loathes it. And more importantly, she's confronted with the fact that she'll lose everything she's worked for and more importantly, her family (her humanity, because she's a woman very much defined by her duties, and I'll touch on that later.)

Finally, at the end of the film, we see her with her hair let down. this is a symbol that she down's feel the drive to be perfect anymore, or at least not all the time. She learns to let hereself enjoy life again (just like Merida does) and not to take herself (or her uties) too seriously.

But we must remember (and it's something I was pleasantly surprised by in this very positive and assertive portray of femininity) that Elinor and Merida are very much a product of their times. Elinor doe not cease to be a woman defined by her duties as a wife, mother and queen simply because she lets her hair down. Instead, she must reconcile that with her own humanity; no longer an ideal, an object to become but her own, and it is as wife, mother and queen that she becomes her own because that's how her femininity as a ruler was bound and defined in those times. And just becouse she's bound by that does not meen she's Less Of A Woman. Conversely, Merida is open still to the possibility of marriage (for she must) because that's what is expected, and eventually she'll become bound and defined by hte same roles as Elinor but she has clearly laid out that she will choose HOW and WHEN will that happen.

Elinor's (freedom) and Merida's (responsability) arcs mirror each other. Why? Because one is the youth who needs to Grow Up To Understand and the other is the adult who needs to Understand The Young. Because they are Not So Different. And mother and daughter and women, and as such they need to understand and support each other.Isn't the building of strong relationships between women a wonderful thing to celebrate? We don't get enough of them in films. and this is what makes Brave so wonderful, although I think it may have been too subtle for some people. This makes it a great film.

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This is a response to specific points in the comments and the article and as such I do not delve deepply in both matters. I could look more into the subtle interactions and behaviors that make Elinor NOT an animal sidekick (unlike some people may claim) but else I risk going on forever and ever.

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Seriously, I'm 18 and how come people older than me are not getting this stuff? It's, like, elementary analysis 101.

(Sorry for the prissy young adult/teenage attitude. It just really, really, REALLY, ticks me off people bashing films I've come to love PRECISELY because of their strong female characters. I may not really identify with a lot of them (I' looking at you, Merida) but it's nice and wonderful to know that they're out there, you know?)

Excuse me, Mulan is BETTER? Mulan's message is that in order to get respect, a woman must be dressed as and act like a man, and once you are "found out" as a woman, you are stripped of your Man Rights and shamed. That's the opposite of empowering.

Also, Brave makes a point that most Disney movies miss, which is that the role of princess is political in nature. As a princess, you are a tool of power exchange and marriage is a legal act of political unification. That sucks for independent-minded persons, and Merida is simply exemplifying that point.

In an industry populated by men, and in a post-feminist age, does one think that a male director is going to happily start production of a movie with a female lead, specifically the first of that sort by the company? No! Why not? Because no matter what he does, some rabid feminist somewhere is going to assume he did it wrong.

We need to get past the assumption that in order to be feminist empowerment, it must be stripped of femininity. And by stripped, I mean overshadowed by powerful, apparently "purely masculine," abilities. Maybe we stop the divide and simply go for Human Abilities, and ethical treatment of everyone. No one is purely Masculine or Feminine, and insisting there is this binary cheapens the wonderful variety that makes up the entities that populate the earth.

Love,

Someone with a vagina, but who does not let that shackle me to any cause. As a creature with a sense of animus, I do have a personal interest in the equality of all.

> Excuse me, Mulan is BETTER? Mulan's message is that in order to get respect, a woman must be dressed as and act like a man, and once you are "found out" as a woman, you are stripped of your Man Rights and shamed.

@BetsyCharbonneau Get a clue. Film makers get criticized. All of them. If the male director is frightened of those mean old feminists, he needs to go back to his mom's basement and play with his whatever that won't actually talk back to him.